True story … started a bank remodel this past weekend, we had three straight days to work … I’m getting to hate 3-day weekends. Just got into tearing things up pretty good and a police sergeant walks in the door. Somehow we tripped the alarm, even though the alarm tech had been on site for 2 hours and supposedly had it disconnected. Anyway, there’s about 16 people in the branch, all looking busy doing demo. Cop says “With this many people in here, I bet you’re not robbing the bank” and I said “Well, they locked up all the money so we decided to steal the furniture and carpet and sheetrock instead”. He obviously was in a good mood cuz he laughed.
“Put your creed in your deed.” Emerson
“When asked if you can do something, tell’em “Why certainly I can”, then get busy and find a way to do it.” T. Roosevelt
Replies
Pitch it to Hollywood... Extreme Bank Remodeling, new bank from start to finish in 72 non-stop hours. You can play that guy, what's his name... Ty?
We didn't try for a complete job in 3 days, but we made a huge advance.
The older branches have hard wired alarms, we're going to wireless, makes it much easier to move furniture araound.
One other problem here was that they had already partially installed the wireless, but all the devices were inside the vault, so the system kept trying to ping them to check for continuity and kept getting faults, so when it came time to arm the system at the end of the day it was overloaded witrh faults.
Another exciting event on this job: branch had two night drops, one was original to the building and ahd been abandoned in place when it wore out, so part of the scope was to remove it and patch the hole in the brick. Problem was no one in the branch could find or remember the combination, so the bank equipment guys had to drill the lock out, just like on tv. Well, not really, but it was interesting. In theory it was really simple: drill a 1/4" hole through the front of the door right next to the lock, insert a long drift pin, and knock the back of the lock off. Didn't work this time. They had to call a locksmith who we use a lot. He drilled a small hole in the side of the safe and inserted a long flexible scope. He looked at the backside of the lock dials (there are three) and rotated the dials until the holes lined up, then noted the number on the front dial. Took a while, like 30 minutes, but finally he had all the numbers and was able to unlock it normally."Put your creed in your deed." Emerson
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
I despise three day weekends. It's not as bad since everything has slowed down. There for a few years it was rough.
We trip alarms a lot it seems. One time we were in a situation like your talking about. Crew in full demo. Three quarters of the teller line was already in the dumpster. Cops came across the parking lot doing their cover and move stuff, pistols out. Finally they sent in a spokesman. Since one of our jobs was the alarm everyone started looking at me for something to tell them. I told him it was a mistake. The alarm was in test. He shook his head and said. "No it's not." I said ."Yes it is." We went back and forth a couple more times. He finally asked if it was in test, then why did they get called? He had me. LOL The console had dropped the ball.
Most of the time the cops figure it out when they pull up. The rambunctious ones just won't let it sink in sometimes.
I got caught the same way. All the wires to the drive in were supposed to be dead but the one I clipped to remove the base cabinets was still hooked up. No problem when the cops came since most bank robbers don't wear pouches and carry Sawzalls.
KK
I worked in banks for a while. There was a contract to put computer terminals at teller stations at night.
I was there to build walls and rock them.
The super was an old hand at it.
He carried but you would never know it.
Will Rogers